Michael Vick Gets a Dog -- Animals Everywhere Cry
In recent years, Vick has repeatedly whined about how it just wasn't right that his kids couldn't grow up with a dog. Then it was discovered he owned a dog again. He didn't announce it until he was caught red-handed with a box of Milkbones on his kitchen table in a photo that he tweeted. When reporters asked him, he initially tried to weasel out of answering, but eventually fessed up to having a dog.
It's a travesty that Vick can legally own a dog again.He didn't just make a mistake. He very carefully and thoroughly planned the deaths of several dogs. He forced many others to fight: maim and be maimed.
Vick not only funded a dog fighting operation, he also engaged first hand in the cruelty for six years. He personally violated dogs using electrical wire and then threw them into a pool so they were electrocuted. He also executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions" and killed using various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground.
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Oh, but he's done everything right up to make up for it. How is executing animals for profit, forsix years in a row a mistake? Of course he's trying to appear that he is making up for it now. He wants to keep earning the big bucks and endorsements so he had no choice. In his case, because the "victimization and killing of pit bulls" was so extreme, it was considered aggravating circumstances and it helped lead prosecutors to exceed the federal sentencing guidelines for the charge. Dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states. Intentionally maiming and then killing dogs is not a mistake. It is a calculated and callous crime.
Oh, but his kids shouldn't be punished for his deeds. Here's why Vick believes he deserves a dog: "Being honest. Being candid. … I still deal with my kids each and every day, and for the last three years, not being able to have a dog because of my acts. … I just don't think that's fair." Perhaps that is something he should have considered before viciously killing innocent animals.
He deserves a second chance. The dogs that died will get no second chance at life. They lived in hell on earth. Released sex offenders cannot even go near children. There needs to be similar laws for people who abuse and torture animals.
I can only hope that animal welfare agencies are watching him and every other animal abuser like a hawk, because that malicious behavior does not just go away as quickly as Nike and the NFL would like the American public to believe it does.
- By Danielle Sullivan
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